Does anyone else feel like the Art pieces on the playa are getting worse the last few years? I mean, the Woman was cool, the Theater was great, but it felt like so many pieces this year were one step above a High School student's art project. The "Cat Shelves" were just embarrassing. There were quite a few other pieces that were just not that compelling, and it was hard to find this year's theme of Metropolis in most of them.

I see pictures of what was happening at 2007's BM and there were some pretty amazing pieces. Even 2008, which I was at had a handful of great pieces. Last year just a handful, but this year, almost nothing. Maybe people just don't have the money to do large pieces anymore?

This was only my second year, but I thought the art was awesome this year, much better than last year. I found a lot of really good projects-- the spinning metal globe with the light inside, the propane thrusters that spun on a pole, the mellow burning towers with the mini propane zen gardens, the enormous multilevel fireball tower that had alien fireball conversations with the fireball art cars... There was so much. And some of the new art cars were amazing-- the enormous blue winged dragonfly, the pink light dragon, the giant VW bus...

I watched a little art piece for an hour. No one walked up to it, they just walked or rode by. So I walked up and took a look. It was a little purple spaceship with little green cats inside. It looked like they were collecting rocks. It brought a smile to my face and I looked it over for a long time. It did what it was supposed to do...it brought me some joy. It didn't have to be 5 stories tall.

If you see something that needs to be done, why aren't you doing it??? Burning man isn't created for you to consume, its created for you to be a part of it. If you think that should be built, go build it!!

I thought the art this year was awesome....did anyone see the digital graffiti wall in the middle of the playa... that shit blew my mind...but yea if u dont think the art is good enough do something of your own...just sayin well done art 2010

I thought there was a LOT of amazing art out there this year....but overall, I'm just happy that people are bringing art. Whether or not someone judges it as good or bad, I'm glad it's there and that people are participating.

I brought art for the first time this year. It amazed me that something that looked so substantial in my small backyard, was just a tiny little speck of hard-to-find once it got out onto the playa. All that empty space just dwarfs everything. I will never again scoff at the "tiny art" out there. Because, really, it's hard enough to bring art-- much less art that's big enough to need a truck/trailer etc to get it there.

brody wrote:I brought art for the first time this year. It amazed me that something that looked so substantial in my small backyard, was just a tiny little speck of hard-to-find once it got out onto the playa.

Having not been to the Burn since 2006, the bar was set pretty high for me - that year had my 2 all-time favorites, the Belgian Waffle/'Uchronia' and the Flaming Lotus Girls' 'Serpent Mother'.

That being said, I still found some pieces I really really loved - the tower with the bird's nest by center camp, the movie theater, and Dust City Diner all blew me away. And even some of the simpler ones. For example, Saturday morning when the dust kicked up I went riding out on the open playa with my coffee and stumbled across some weird garden thing that looked like a cross between Stonehenge and the monoliths from 2001:A Space Odyssey. There was nothing mind blowing about it but my own experience just quietly sitting there smoking and drinking my coffee and watching other people emerge out of the dust and wander around contemplating it ... nice and subtle.

My favourite piece of art this year was the thing around the 7 o'clock spoke of inner playa, the tall rectangular open-mesh box that had flaming logs inside it....it turned around like a Ferris wheel, and the logs would tumble around like in a giant Rain Stick and sparks would fly everywhere and the noise was insane. It was BAD ASS. Goes to show that you don't need super fancy technology (?) to make something really amazing.

The spinning metal globe: SICK! especially at night.
The ring of fire by 3:30: such a cool idea!
Nexus all around was incredible with the giant fire globe and HUGE playground.
CUBITRON was sooooo mesmerixing this year!
The giant Piano that you could walk on and hear the keys play was super fun!
Bliss Dance of course was incredible, breathtaking, ethereal.
The many art cars, some returns from prior years, and many new cool ones, like Reptar!!
The balloons are so cool! They are actually ridden around by 2 people on either side until they release one end into the air. They broke a record this year with the number of balloons they had on the string =)
Totally agree, make your own art contribution...once you do, you will see how much creativity, effort, and time is put into even the smallest project, like the many shoe-sized boxes by the man with a different scene set up in each one <3

brody wrote:My favourite piece of art this year was the thing around the 7 o'clock spoke of inner playa, the tall rectangular open-mesh box that had flaming logs inside it....it turned around like a Ferris wheel, and the logs would tumble around like in a giant Rain Stick and sparks would fly everywhere and the noise was insane. It was BAD ASS. Goes to show that you don't need super fancy technology (?) to make something really amazing.

brody, Towering Inferno was my favorite as well! I was absolutely CAPTIVATED while watching the little sparks of fire dance in the night sky as it spun around. Magical!

Bliss Dance was also just gorgeous... probably my favorite piece to see pictures of, because it just looks fantastic from every angle [/i]

"Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living" -- Miriam Beard

There were a ton of really amazing peices this year exectuted at a higher level then any other year. But there were allot of phoned in pieces too. Maybe that is what you were noticing. The pieces that may have been incomplete or done on a small budget. I do think the theme was missing, but who cares. People came out in droves and made art. Whether good or bad, people participated and each art project created an experience, unique and beautiful. Fuck, I sat under what I thought was one of the worst art projects I had seen and had one of the most memorable times at BM.

I will never fault people for doing, I was trying to encourage people to make art out of their used beer cans and baby wipes. Until the playa is covered in art I could care less if it all looks like a 3rd grade assignment. Ill walk out and stare until I find inspiration in it.

50000 people, over half just coming to party, going to a thrift store spending 30 minutes on clothes......then they come out dragging their quotidian worlds out there mistaking burningman for a halloween frat party with friends doing exactly what they do at home, bringing that boring luggage to the playa, complaining about the art, and giving little to the experience, yet bragging when they get home about how cool the event was and how they fit right in.......ask yourself what did u bring to the city that made it unique?????? UNIQUE! UNIQUE!!! this is what has gotten lost with the growth of the event....'97 my first year 90% of the people out there got it, now it seems to be a multitude of normal people doing normal things mistaking the event for a party back home.....so many "citizens" of blackrock seemed to be on that conveyor belt to conformity......yet it is still the best most amazing place for the week......tell yourself next year you will do something to make the city better by doing something creative - no more phone booths, megaphones with lame dialogue, cheesy outfits that are storebought, chill camps, "photography gifts", paid camps, camps bringing deadweight people, stripper poles, and all the other stuff there are a million of out there...

do something, dont whine about the art, be the art, do some art, and appreciate the little art that people put forth the effort to make our experience varied and fun......and most of all interesting....

this is my rant and i m sticking to it! nothing personal......
dragnet.....

[quote="Isotopia"][quote]Does anyone else feel like the Art pieces on the playa are getting worse the last few years? [/quote]

Does anyone else think that if you don't like what art others have created that maybe you should carry your sorry, lame, spectating ass out there and create some of your own?[/quote]

Thanks. Frankly, you have no idea what I contribute when I go. You have zero idea about what I do and have done. People calling other people "spectators" is so lame. Especially because when they do it, they don't know anything about the person they're saying it about. People are always so ready to label other people at Burning Man. You're like the girl who rode by on a bike this year, as I was tossing a cup of dusty water onto the road, and yelled, "I SEE YOU LITTERING! NOT COOL, NOT COOOOOOOOLLLLLLL!", but never actually stopped to see what it was that I tossed out onto the road.

Just because I can't paint a Mona Lisa, doesn't mean I can't voice my opinion about the art in a gallery.

50000 people, over half just coming to party, going to a thrift store spending 30 minutes on clothes......then they come out dragging their quotidian worlds out there mistaking burningman for a halloween frat party with friends doing exactly what they do at home, bringing that boring luggage to the playa, complaining about the art, and giving little to the experience, yet bragging when they get home about how cool the event was and how they fit right in.......ask yourself what did u bring to the city that made it unique?????? UNIQUE! UNIQUE!!! this is what has gotten lost with the growth of the event....'97 my first year 90% of the people out there got it, now it seems to be a multitude of normal people doing normal things mistaking the event for a party back home.....so many "citizens" of blackrock seemed to be on that conveyor belt to conformity......yet it is still the best most amazing place for the week......tell yourself next year you will do something to make the city better by doing something creative - no more phone booths, megaphones with lame dialogue, cheesy outfits that are storebought, chill camps, "photography gifts", paid camps, camps bringing deadweight people, stripper poles, and all the other stuff there are a million of out there...

do something, dont whine about the art, be the art, do some art, and appreciate the little art that people put forth the effort to make our experience varied and fun......and most of all interesting....

this is my rant and i m sticking to it! nothing personal......
dragnet.....[/quote]

Well, it sure sounds like you're complaining about a few things as well. And again, you don't know what I do out there. Trust that I'm not a drunken frat boy who doesn't understand what BM is about. I contribute, just not through the art installations.

Perhaps part of my problem this year was that I was introducing 2 new people to BM and I was just a little underwhelmed by the art as a whole. It just seemed scattered and not quite as mesmerizing as previous years and I saw that reflected in the other people in my party as well, newbies and veterans alike.